Psycho's Movie Reviews #107: Romancing The Stone (1984)

Romancing the Stone is a 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Diane Thomas and produced by Michael Douglas who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.

Thomas wrote the screenplay in 1979, her only screenplay to be produced in her lifetime. Zemeckis, who at the time was developing Cocoon, liked Thomas' screenplay and offered to direct but 20th Century Fox initially declined, citing the commercial failure of his first two films I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars. The director would eventually be dismissed from Cocoon after an early screening of Romancing the Stone failed to further impress studio executives. Alan Silvestri, who would collaborate with Zemeckis on his later films, composed the film's score.

Romancing the Stone was released on March 30, 1984, to positive reviews from critics and earned over $115 million worldwide at the box office. It was followed by a 1985 sequel titled The Jewel of the Nile.

Plot:

Joan Wilder is a successful, but lonely, romance novelist in New York City. After finishing her latest novel, Joan leaves her apartment to meet her editor, Gloria. On the way she is handed a letter that contains a map, sent by her recently murdered brother-in-law, Eduardo. While she is gone, a man tries to break into her apartment and is discovered by her apartment supervisor, whom he kills. Returning to her apartment, Joan finds it ransacked. She then receives a frantic phone call from her sister Elaine—Eduardo's widow. Elaine has been kidnapped by antiquities smugglers, cousins Ira and Ralph, and instructs Joan to go to the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena with the map she received; it is Elaine's ransom.

Flying to Colombia, Joan is diverted from the rendezvous point by Colonel Zolo—the same man that ransacked her apartment looking for the map—by tricking her into boarding the wrong bus. Instead of heading to Cartagena, this bus goes deep into the interior of the country.[a] Ralph realizes this and begins following Joan. After Joan accidentally distracts the bus driver by asking where they are going, the bus crashes into a Land Rover, wrecking both vehicles. As the rest of the passengers walk away, Joan is menaced by Zolo but is saved by the Land Rover's owner: an American exotic bird smuggler named Jack T. Colton. For getting her out of the jungle and to a telephone, Joan promises to pay Jack $375 in traveler's cheques.

Jack and Joan travel the jungle while eluding Zolo and his military police. Reaching a small village, they encounter a drug lord named Juan, who is a big fan of Joan's novels and happily helps them escape from Zolo.

After a night of dancing and passion in a nearby town, Jack suggests to Joan that they find the treasure themselves before handing over the map. Zolo's men enter the town, so Jack and Joan steal a car to escape—but it is Ralph's car, and he is sleeping in the back. They follow the clues and retrieve the treasure: an enormous emerald called El Corazón ("The Heart"). Ralph takes the emerald from them at gunpoint, but Zolo's forces appear, distracting Ralph long enough for Jack to steal the jewel back. After being chased into a river and over a waterfall, Jack and Joan are separated on opposite sides of the raging river; Joan has the map, but Jack has the emerald. Jack directs Joan to Cartagena, promising that he will meet her there.

In Cartagena, Joan meets with Ira, who takes the map and releases Elaine. But Zolo and his men arrive, with a captured Jack and a severely beaten Ralph. As Zolo tortures Joan, Jack tries to throw the emerald into a crocodile pool behind Zolo. Zolo is able to catch the emerald, but then a crocodile jumps up and bites his hand off, swallowing the emerald with it. A shootout ensues between Zolo's soldiers and Ira's gang. Joan and Elaine dash for safety, pursued by the maimed Zolo, as Jack tries to stop the crocodile from escaping; he begrudgingly lets it go to try and save Joan.

A crazed Zolo charges at Joan; she dodges his wild knife slashes and he falls into a crocodile pit. As the authorities arrive, Ira and his men escape, but Ralph is left behind. After a kiss, Jack dives into the water after the crocodile with the emerald, leaving Joan behind with her sister.

Later, Joan is back in New York City, and has written a new novel based on her adventure. Gloria—Joan's publisher—is moved to tears by the story and tells Joan she has another best-seller on her hands. Returning home, she finds Jack waiting for her in a sailboat named the Angelina, after the heroine of Joan's novels, and wearing boots made from the crocodile's skin. He jokes that the crocodile got "a fatal case of indigestion" from the emerald, which he sold, using the money to buy the boat of his dreams. They go off together, planning to sail around the world.

Production

Screenplay:

The screenplay for Romancing was written five years earlier by a Malibu waitress named Diane Thomas in what would end up being her only screenplay made into a movie. She died in a car crash a year and a half after the film's release.

Casting:

Sylvester Stallone was originally considered for the role of Jack T. Colton.

Filming:

Filming locations for Romancing the Stone included Veracruz, Mexico (Fort of San Juan de Ulúa); and Huasca de Ocampo, Mexico. Parts of the film were also shot in Snow Canyon, Utah. The scene where Turner and Douglas get separated on opposite banks on a whitewater river, about two-thirds into the movie, was filmed on the Rio Antigua near the town of Jalcomulco, Veracruz.

Turner later said of the film's production, "I remember terrible arguments with Robert Zemeckis doing Romancing. He's a film-school grad, fascinated by cameras and effects. I never felt that he knew what I was having to do to adjust my acting to some of his damn cameras – sometimes he puts you in ridiculous postures. I'd say, 'This is not helping me! This is not the way I like to work, thank you!'" Despite their difficulties on the film, Zemeckis would go on to work with Turner again, casting her as the voice of Jessica Rabbit in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Release/Reception/Box Office:

Romancing the Stone holds an 85% approval rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 52 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Romancing the Stone reaches back to the classic Saturday morning serials of old with an action-filled adventure enlivened by the sparkling chemistry between its well-matched leads."

Upon the release of Romancing the Stone, Time magazine called the film "a distaff Raiders rip-off". The Washington Post remarked that "Though fitfully thrilling and amusing, Joan Wilder's adventures degenerate into a muddle. Neither screenwriter Diane Thomas nor director Robert Zemeckis, good-humoured as they strive to be, maintains a coherent perception of how the plot should be contrived to trump the heroine's overactive fantasy life." They elaborated that the stone makes an uncompelling MacGuffin, Joan's character development is incongruous and ultimately unsatisfying, and Joan and Jack lack romantic chemistry. By contrast, Time Out commented that "The script is sharp and funny, the direction sure-footed on both the comedy and action fronts," and compared the film favourably to its contemporary in the same genre, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Roger Ebert called it "a silly, high-spirited chase picture", saying he greatly enjoyed the film's imaginative perils, colourful cast of villains, and believable relationship between its two lead characters. He likewise compared it favourably to other Raiders of the Lost Ark clones.

Colin Greenland reviewed Romancing the Stone for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Good-humoured, sparky stuff in the manner of Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Filmsite.org included it as one of the best films of 1984, and Entertainment Weekly included it on their list of films that made 1984 one of the best years for Hollywood films.

Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan viewed this film at Camp David in May 1984.

Studio insiders expected Romancing the Stone to flop (to the point that, after viewing a rough cut of the film, the producers of the then-under-development Cocoon fired Zemeckis as director of that film), but the film became a surprise hit. It became 20th Century Fox's only big hit of 1984. Zemeckis later stated that the success of Romancing the Stone allowed him to make Back to the Future.

My Review:

When a version of a female Walter Mitty is ever done no doubt about it that Kathleen Turner should get first call. Unless you think she kind of did it already with Romancing The Stone.

Turner is a romance novelist by profession who in real life is a rather humdrum sort prone to accidents. But a piece of mail from her sister who is in Colombia with a map to a rather large emerald, the Hitchcockian McGuffin of the film leads her on a high road to adventure the kind of thing she writes about. Her adventure in Colombia includes taking the wrong bus, being chased by a free wheeling army colonel, falling in the hands of drug dealers, pursued by bottom feeding crook Danny DeVito and finally partnering with the kind of adventure hero she writes about in Michael Douglas.

Douglas and Turner would prove so popular that they did two other pictures in the 80s. The film itself got an Oscar nod for Editing. Some others in this gifted cast are Mary Ellen Trainor as her sister, Holland Taylor as Turner's editor, Alfonso Arau who is a drug dealer fan of her work, and Manuel Ojeda as the army colonel obsessed with that big green jewel.

Romancing The Stone is a lushly photographed and vigorous satire on all those old action/adventure films. You know, the stuff you only see in romance novels.

I beg to differ when I hear Kathleen Turner saying that she never should have accepted the role of Joan Wilder. She is fantastic in this movie, and it is a pleasure to watch her go from mousy romance novelist to a woman who can handle herself surprisingly to everybody else in the jungles of Columbia. When she goes there to aide her kidnapped sister, she finds more than she bargained for thanks to her association with adventurer Michael Douglas who saves her from being robbed by the man responsible for her sister's kidnapping.

Turner and Douglas fly down mud slides while she attempts to cross a faulty old bridge and swings the rest of the way across and later bleeds over a pit of hungry alligators. Douglas, initially annoyed by her seeming incompetence, quickly discovers that she learns quickly on her own, and just the dropping of her name alone saves them from being killed. Chasing them is the buffoonish Danny DeVito, working for a secret boss, and the exact kind of imbecile Douglas thought Turner was.

This adventure comedy romance is a shear delight from start to finish, and shows why Turner dominated the 1980's as the most successful female movie star at the box office. It tops the same year's Indiana Jones sequel in thrills and is a much better movie without being gross or headache inducing. Turner's character makes a great turn around, and her character is quite the antithesis of "Body Heat's" Maddie Walker. This is the type of film that you can watch over and over and find new thrills each time. The terrific Holland Taylor adds her usual delicious snarky as Turner's agent and confidante.

I certainly wouldn't call Romancing the Stone the best adventure film ever or anything, but it is a truly entertaining and fun one at that. The story is admittedly old-fashioned(and I think purposefully so) but the freshness of the material more than compensates. The gags are very tongue-in-cheek, there are some very clever touches in the writing and the action is breathless. The film is great to watch, there is a terrific score and the direction is fine. Michael Douglas is quite world-weary here and his character is nothing special but he also has a lot of charm about his performance, while Danny DeVito is great fun as the inept kidnapper. But it is Kathleen Turner's movie, she dazzles in the role, and her chemistry with Douglas is in general very good; 8/10.